Another Day, Another Downtown $245 Million Project

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Developer Sonny Astani has had his ups and downs in Downtown. A low point was when he lost the Concerto, a high-rise he developed in South Park, during the depths of the recession after his lender got into financial trouble. Another owner took over and the property eventually opened as the Apex.
Now, there’s another high point. Astani last week announced that his Astani Enterprises and parking company L&R Group have sold a lot at 12th Street and Grand Avenue for $45 million; they spent $29 million to acquire the property last November.
The three-acre site has been sold to the Scottsdale, Arizona-based private equity firm Wolff Company. Astani had previously revealed to Los Angeles Downtown News that he would develop the site as a project dubbed G12. Astani now plans to partner on the $245 million project with Wolff Company.
“I am thrilled to have a chance to work with the buyer to develop the last open acreage in the South Park area of Downtown,” Astani said in a prepared statement. “G12 will be an incredible live/work neighborhood that is also close to USC.”
Plans call for the complex to break ground in January and be completed within two years. The development will have 640 units along with 40,000 square feet of retail space, a screening room and two pools. Plans also call for having 740 bike parking spaces, and just 595 slots for cars.
Copyright 2013 Los Angeles Downtown News

Classic Video Arcade and Full Bar Coming to Arts District

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Start saving your quarters and get ready to answer that question from the golden age of the arcade: What’s your high score?
EightyTwo, a bar and old-school video arcade, is expected to open in the Arts District in January 2014. The venue at 718 E. Third St. will offer more than 40 fully restored arcade games and pinball machines from the 1960s to the ’90s.

Founded by native Angelenos Scott Davids, 33, and Noah Sutcliffe, 32, EightyTwo will offer the arcade, full bar and pinball machines in two rooms spanning 4,000 square feet. The project will also have a 1,700-square-foot patio. Architect Darin Johnstone will design a modern edifice from the 1980 storefront in an effort to showcase the machines as playable objects of art.
Davids and Sutcliffe said they have been playing video games since they were toddlers.
“The arcade culture changed the world and then, with a blink of an eye, arcades were replaced by more modern technology and home computing. It’s an era that should not be forgotten,” said Davids, whose first games were Pong and Space Invaders (with his dad).
Sutcliffe's inaugural play happened before he could reach the controller.
"I remember my grandparents trying to find me a box to stand on so I could play Battlezone at the L.A. County Fair when I was 3," he said.
Some of the games patrons will find at EightyTwo include Space Invaders, Centipede, Donkey Kong, Pac Man and his bow-wearing counter part, Dig Dug and Streetfighter II. In addition to gaming competitions, EightyTwo plans to host special events and art shows. For a full list of games, please click here.
As in 1982, games will cost two bits a pop. Larger sit-down games and pinball machines will be 50 cents a play.
donna@downtownnews.com

Meet The Woman Who Says She's The Voice Of Siri

Siri might frustrate you less once you meet the woman who voiced it.
On Friday, CNN revealed that voice actor Susan Bennett is the voice behind Siri, Apple's personal assistant on iPhones and iPads.
"I'm the actor who provided the voice for Siri," she told CNN.
Bennett said she didn't know she voiced Siri until Apple integrated it into the iPhone in 2011. "A colleague e-mailed me [about Siri] and said, 'Hey, we've been playing around with this new Apple phone. Isn't this you?'" she said. Once Bennett heard Siri's voice, she knew it was.
Bennett is an accomplished voice actor, and has done work for companies like AT&T, Delta, Coca Cola, McDonalds and more. When Bennett signed the contract for the job in 2005, she didn't know what the recordings would be used for. But the gig had her working four hours a day for a month recording the phrases that would be baked into iOS.
However, Apple, being the secretive company that it is, wouldn't confirm Bennett was behind the robot assistant.
To make its case, CNN got the professional opinion of an audio forensics expert, and had him analyze Bennett's voice against Siri's. The expert, Ed Primeau, studied the two voices and said, "They are identical -- a 100% match." The CEO of the voiceover company Bennet worked confirm she is Siri as well.
If Siri sounds sassy, it might be because Bennett got bored at the end of these sessions, she said.
There has been a lot of speculation about who was behind the now famous voice. Just last month, The Verge posted a video about Siri that caused some to incorrectly believe that Siri was played by a woman named Allison Duffy. Duffy was forced to write a blog post saying that she was not Siri.
Though Siri is now a feature of Apple phones, it was originally created by a company of the same name. As the Huffington Post previously reported, Apple overhauled Siri when it purchased it, arguably for the worse by stripping it of its attitude and many of its best features.
For example, when asked restaurant suggestions, the original Siri would search multiple sites like Yelp, AllMenus and Google Maps for results. Today's Siri isn't nearly that advanced.
With iOS 7, Apple's latest operating system, Apple introduced a male voice option for U.S. customers. In some countries, like France and the UK, Siri was introduced with a male voice.

Gulf Coast Braces for Tropical Storm Karen Mississippi and Louisiana governors declare states of emergency

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - From a tiny, vulnerable island off the Louisiana coast to the beaches of the Florida Panhandle, Gulf Coast residents prepared Thursday for a possible hit from Tropical Storm Karen, which threatened to become the first named tropical system to menace the United States this year.

Karen was forecast to lash the northern Gulf Coast over the weekend as a weak hurricane or tropical storm. A hurricane watch was in effect from Grand Isle, La., to west of Destin, Fla. A tropical storm warning was issued for the Louisiana coast from Grand Isle to the mouth of the Pearl River, including the New Orleans area.

In Alabama, safety workers hoisted double red flags at Gulf Shores because of treacherous rip currents ahead of the storm.

In Mississippi, Gov. Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency, urging residents to prepare. State Emergency Management Agency Director Robert Latham said local schools will decide whether to play football games. He said the southern part of the state could have tropical storm-force winds by late Friday.

Idella Carey, Capitol Chase Suspect's Mother, Says Daughter Was Depressed

NEW YORK -- NEW YORK (AP) — The mother of a Connecticut woman who was shot to death by police after trying to breach a barrier at the White House said her daughter was suffering from post-partum depression.
Authorities said the woman set off a high-speed car chase that put the Capitol on lockdown Thursday and caused a fresh panic the city where a gunman killed 12 people two weeks ago.
Two law enforcement officials identified the driver as 34-year-old Miriam Carey, of Stamford, Conn. She was traveling with a 1-year-old girl who avoided serious injury and was taken into protective custody. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.
Carey's mother, Idella Carey, told ABC News Thursday night that her daughter began suffering from post-partum depression after giving birth to her daughter, Erica, last August.
"She had post-partum depression after having the baby" she said. She added, "A few months later, she got sick. She was depressed. ... She was hospitalized."
Idella Carey said her daughter had "no history of violence" and she didn't know why she was in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. She said she thought Carey was taking Erica to a doctor's appointment in Connecticut.
ABC News reported that Miriam Carey was a dental hygienist. Her boss, Dr. Steven Oken, described Carey as a person who was "always happy."
I would never in a million years believe that she would do something like this," he said. "It's the furthest thing from anything I would think she would do, especially with her child in the car. I am floored that it would be her."

Sicily Shipwreck: Dozens Of African Migrants Die Off Coast Of Lampedusa

ROME -- ROME (AP) — A ship carrying African migrants to Europe caught fire and capsized off the Italian island of Lampedusa on Thursday, killing at least 94 people as it spilled hundreds of passengers into the sea, officials said. Over 150 people were rescued but some 200 others were still unaccounted-for.
It was one of the deadliest accidents in recent times during the notoriously perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing from Africa for migrants seeking a new life in the European Union.
"We need only caskets, certainly not ambulances," Pietro Bartolo, chief of health services on the island, told Radio 24. He gave the death toll of 94 but told Sky TG24 he expected that to rise as search operations continued.
"It's an immense tragedy," said Lampedusa Mayor Giusi Nicolini, adding that the dead included at least one child of about 3 and a pregnant woman.
Blue, white and black tarps covered the bodies at the port.
Coast guard ships, local fishing boats and helicopters from across the region were combing the waters trying to find survivors, said coast guard spokesman Marco Di Milla. The boat left from Tripoli with migrants from Eritrea, Ghana and Somalia, Di Milla said.
Antonio Candela, the government's health commissioner for Palermo, said 159 people had been rescued, but the boat is believed to have been carrying as many as 500 people, the LaPresse news agency reported.
Nicolini said the ship had caught fire after those on board set off flares so it would be seen by passing ships. The ship apparently then capsized, spilling the passengers into the sea near Conigli island.
Lampedusa is closer to Africa than the Italian mainland — a mere 70 miles (113 kilometers) off the coast of Tunisia — and is the frequent destination for smugglers' boats.

Interior Minister Angelino Alfano canceled his appointments Thursday and headed to Italy's southernmost island to oversee the rescue operations. Pope Francis, who visited Lampedusa in July, quickly sent condolences.
It was the second shipwreck this week off Italy: On Monday, 13 men drowned while trying to reach southern Sicily when their ship ran aground just a few meters (yards) from shore.
Hundreds of migrants reach Italy's shores every day, particularly during the summer when seas are usually calmer. They are processed in centers, screened for asylum and often sent back home. Those who aren't usually melt into the general public and make their way to northern Europe, where immigrant communities are bigger and better organized. In Italy, migrants can only work legally if they have a work permit and contract before they arrive.
According to the U.N. refugee agency, 8,400 migrants landed in Italy and Malta in the first six months of the year, almost double the 4,500 who arrived during the first half of 2012.
It's still a far cry from the tens of thousands who flooded to Italy, especially through Lampedusa, during the Arab Spring exodus of 2011.
The numbers, though, have spiked in recent weeks, particularly with Syrian arrivals.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees had recorded 40 deaths in the first half of 2013 for migrants arriving in Italy and Malta, and a total of 500 for all of 2012, based on interviews with survivors. Fortress Europe, an Italian observatory that tracks migrant deaths reported by the media, says about 6,450 people died in the Canal of Sicily between 1994 and 2012.
___
Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Obama's Government Shutdown Strategy: Maintain The Appearance Of A Leader

WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON (AP) — Attend a black-tie gala? No. Meet with business leaders who oppose a government shutdown? Yes. Jet off to Asia for a four-country tour? Maybe, but shorten the trip and keep the option to cancel.
President Barack Obama's strategy during the partial shutdown of the federal government is aimed at keeping up the appearance of a leader focused on the public's priorities and avoiding looking tone deaf to the hundreds of thousands of Americans forced off the job. He's also trying to maintain what the White House sees as a political advantage over Republicans, with nearly all the president's events providing him a platform to blast House GOP lawmakers for opposing a Senate bill to keep the government running.
Republicans have sharply criticized the president's approach, saying that if he were serious about ending the shutdown, he would be negotiating a solution. Obama did summon congressional lawmakers to the White House to discuss the shutdown Wednesday evening, but the leaders emerged to say no progress had been made.
"The meeting was cordial but unproductive," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
The president's allies say Obama is best served by staying away from the negotiating table and letting Republicans argue among themselves.
"I think if you're the White House, you just sit back and watch," said Robert Gibbs, former White House press secretary and a longtime Obama adviser. "I don't think there's anything for you to do. I don't think there's anything you should do."
The government shut down after Congress failed to pass a spending bill by Monday's midnight deadline, forcing about 800,000 federal workers off the job, shuttering national parks, and halting a range of government services. House Republicans are demanding changes to Obama's health care law in exchange for funding the government, a tactic the White House opposes.
Most polling ahead of the shutdown shows Republicans taking more of the heat than Obama for the political impasse. No polling on the shutdown itself has been completed.
The power of the presidential bully pulpit does give Obama one distinct advantage over Republicans. He can streamline the message coming from the White House, while GOP leaders must contend with the different factions of their party airing competing and sometimes contradictory views.

In the opening days of the shutdown, Obama's message has been squarely focused on the economic impact of the shutdown and the benefits of the health care law Republicans are seeking to curtail. On Tuesday, he met with Americans who say they're being helped by the new health law. On Wednesday, he met with business executives — traditionally a core Republican constituency — to discuss the impact of the shutdown and the upcoming debt-ceiling debate on the economy. And on Thursday, he plans to visit a construction company in nearby Maryland to highlight how small businesses are affected by the shutdown.
But Obama canceled an appearance Wednesday night at the glitzy Congressional Hispanic Caucus gala, an event he has attended every year since winning the White House. The White House also announced that the president was scaling back his upcoming trip to Asia, canceling stops in Malaysia and the Philippines — two of the four countries he had planned to visit.
The White House also left open the possibility that the whole trip might be canceled. Obama is scheduled to depart Saturday night for economic summits in Indonesia and Brunei.
National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the White House "will continue to evaluate those trips based on how events develop throughout the course of the week."
Even a shortened trip abroad could be risky for Obama. Presidential travel is a high-dollar endeavor that may not sit well with Americans facing financial burdens because of the shutdown. A trip to Asia would also require Obama to spend long stretches on an airplane, limiting the amount of time he can be making his case to the public for restarting the government. And the time difference would mean that nearly all of his events would take place when most Americans are sleeping.
Chris Lehane, a Democratic consultant who worked for President Bill Clinton during the 1995 government shutdown, said Obama needs to strike "a very fine balance" between overseeing the shutdown and his other obligations as president.
"You're the president of the United States, you have a thousand things you need to do and you need to continue to be in position to do those things," Lehane said. "But the optics of being in Washington, D.C., ready to move the government forward are important."
Further complicating the president's travel plans: Most of the staffers who help plan and manage the logistics of foreign trips have been furloughed because of the shutdown.
Canceling a presidential foreign trip — even a long-planned one — is hardly unprecedented. Clinton canceled a trip to Asia during the 1995 shutdown. Obama canceled two trips to Asia in 2010, once to stay in Washington for votes on his health care law and once to deal with the devastating BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
___